


You Don't Have To Say It

by evrybodysdarlin



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Hair-pulling, M/M, Mentions of past Elliot Alderson/Shayla Nico, Prison Sex, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 15:23:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8061634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evrybodysdarlin/pseuds/evrybodysdarlin
Summary: Elliot tries to help Leon with his hair one day, but things go down a different path. (Canon compliant, non-AU.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings--a little swearing, some pretty sweet and friendly smut, one mentioned homophobic slur. Nothing you wouldn't expect from the rating. The only other warning I can think of is someone doing a bad job at retwisting dreadlocks, LOL.

It was recreation time, and Leon wasn’t there. Not at Elliot’s cell to meet up with him, not at the basketball court where they always sat, not in the dining hall. He was nowhere to be seen, and it was throwing off Elliot’s itinerary pretty badly. Was his perfect loop even possible without Leon by his side?

He pondered whether it would be more disruptive to his routine to skip basketball time and go look for Leon or to watch basketball alone. He let his eyes scan over the unfriendly faces that filled the bleachers. It wasn’t like he could go sit by any of them; no one would welcome his company except for Leon. Hell, he didn’t think anyone in here knew his name except for Leon. Most people ignored him or else called him assorted pejoratives. _Bug eyes, freak show, skinny little faggot._

Sitting alone would be all right, but without the distraction of Leon’s basketball-related outbursts and _Seinfeld_ -related conversation, Mr. Robot would definitely show up and harass him. He was having an alter-free day so far, and he wanted to keep it that way. 

Besides, it wasn’t as if he actually enjoyed watching basketball. 

That settled it. Go look for Leon.

Leon turned out to be in his own cell, the next cellblock over from Elliot’s, sitting on his cot with the cell door open. The bandana Leon usually wore around his head was thrown on the floor, and he seemed to be doing something to his hair, although Elliot couldn’t tell what. Something that involved a lot of mumbled cursing.

“What’s up?” Elliot asked as he stepped into the doorway.

“Man, some bullshit, that’s what. On my way to rec, the warden stopped me and said my hair was looking ‘unkempt’ or some shit and that I needed to fix it or else he’d make me shave my head.”

“That is bullshit,” Elliot agreed easily. One of the usual stupid power plays of prison. Assimilate, subdue, dehumanize. 

“I’m trying to give myself a retwist with this shitty commissary gel. It is _not_ going well, bro.” Leon gestured toward an open jar of hair gel with his elbow, both hands still working on his hair. Elliot could see now that he was twisting one of his thick dreadlocks around his finger clockwise, over and over, trying to pull the loose roots of his newly regrown hair into the rest of the lock, then rolling the lock back and forth between his palms. 

“Do you need help?” Elliot blurted out, then immediately cringed.

“Do you know _how_ to help with this?” Leon asked, looking dubiously at Elliot over his shoulder.

“Uh, not really.” God, how did he manage to say the wrong thing any time he managed to actually say anything at all?

“Hey, that’s okay. Two heads are better than one, right? Or four hands, better than two. Think you can just copy what I’m doing? Get the back of my head where I can’t see?” 

“Yeah, sure.”

“Here, sit on my bed.” Elliot obeyed, and Leon gracefully flopped down onto the floor at his feet. 

Elliot had a sudden flash of long-forgotten memory. A pleasant one, for once. He used to sit in front of Shayla like that, when she would trim his hair for him in his old apartment. “Shut up, it’s no trouble!” she would tell him, half-pushing him down so she could trim the back of his neck with his clippers, keep the lines of his haircut even. She’d rub his head while she worked, massaging, scratching his scalp with her long fingernails, and the first touch made him jump, but once he got past the first shudder, he loved it. He never said anything about it, but he never told her to stop, so she did it every time. He got to where he would have missed it, if she’d stopped doing it, would have even asked for it if he could have mustered up the words, but she never stopped. She knew. She never made him ask. That’s what he had loved about her.

“Here, see what I’m doing?” Leon said, pulling him back into the present. Elliot silently watched him as he wrapped another lock around his fingers, rubbing gel on his roots. 

“Yeah, I see.” Elliot reached his hands out toward Leon’s head, then paused. “Don’t you think one of the other guys would do a better job?”

“Eh, probably, but I’m not tight with them, cuz. Not like with you. And the guys who are really good charge for it, and I don’t wanna spend my precious currency on that shit, you know what I’m saying?”

Elliot felt a pit of guilt form in his stomach. Of course Leon wasn’t tight with anyone else, he spent all of his free time with Elliot, the silent freak. 

He realized that Leon was sitting still in front of him, waiting for him to start, so he pulled himself out of his self-recrimination and got to work. 

“Ow! Y’know, my hair’s attached my head, cuz,” Leon complained mildly the first time Elliot tried to untangle some of his roots from the surrounding hair. 

“Sorry.” He rubbed the spot where he’d tugged apologetically. 

“Mm, that’s good,” Leon mumbled. Elliot finished rolling up one lock, at least as well as he could, and moved on to the next one. He was gentler with the roots this time, separating them carefully, trying to make a straight part even though he didn’t have a comb. 

“You’re getting the hang of it,” Leon said. Elliot’s fingernail brushed Leon’s scalp as he wrapped the lock around his fingers, and Leon sighed and tilted his head back under Elliot’s hands. Elliot cautiously repeated the motion, and Leon tipped his head closer to Elliot’s grasp again. _He likes this, just like I did,_ Elliot thought. 

Elliot forced himself to stop testing his hypothesis and focus on fixing Leon’s dreadlocks. He was pretty sure he was making a mess of it, but hey, it was kind of relaxing. Krista had always told him he should get a hobby where he worked with his hands. (He had told her that working on a computer _did_ involve his hands, but she’d said that wasn’t what she meant.)

Whenever he tried to work on Leon’s roots, though, he couldn’t resist rubbing his head a little, like Shayla had done to him, and every time Leon made happy little noises and leaned closer to Elliot, until he was pretty much sitting between Elliot’s knees. 

_I really wanna kiss him_ , Elliot thought, seemingly out of nowhere. But no, no way, he was surely reading this situation wrong. He felt like he read every social situation beyond the most basic wrong, honestly. He was on the wrong page, in the wrong book, maybe not even reading the same language as everybody else. His instincts weren’t to be trusted. God, if he hadn’t known it before, accidentally kissing his own sister had certainly shown him that.

He was almost done with the back of Leon’s head, even though the locks were looking…a little crooked, and still kind of frizzy at the base. He wasn’t sure how much help he’d even been. He’d probably been more of a hindrance. But he didn’t want to _stop_.

He reached for the lock of hair that hung directly behind Leon’s right ear. He let his fingers skim Leon’s hairline, passing the little hollow behind his ear, sliding down toward his neck, feeling his pulse.

“ _Fuck_ , Elliot,” Leon said, and it was almost a groan, low and sweet. Elliot looked down and saw that his eyes were almost closed, his mouth falling open. He couldn’t resist anymore, even if it was a mistake. He leaned forward and around, all rushed and awkward, half-falling off the bed, and pressed his lips against Leon’s. 

After a tiny pause, Leon kissed back, his lips warm and soft. Then he pulled back from the kiss and laughed softly. “You smooth motherfucker. Get down here.” He tugged Elliot’s arm until he slid off the bed, then easily used his long, gangly arms to pull Elliot into his lap, straddling his thighs. Elliot felt panicked for a moment, surprised by the sudden move, by this position that he’d certainly never been in before, with anyone, but then Leon kissed him again and his brain went silent. God, it was so silent and black, like someone had unplugged him, and all he could feel was Leon, warm and all around him. 

Leon’s hands were in Elliot’s hair now, a role reversal, his strong thumbs massaging the base of Elliot’s neck until he trembled and heard himself moan out loud.

Leon’s fingers slid down to Elliot’s collar and started impatiently unbuttoning his jumpsuit. “Man, I’ve told you, it’s lame to wear your jumpsuit all buttoned up like this.” Leon’s jumpsuit was already half-off, tied around his waist as it usually was, so he was just wearing his T-shirt on top. Elliot cautiously slid his hands under it, feeling soft skin and the little ripples of Leon’s muscles, and Leon groaned, his abs tightening under Elliot’s hand.

“What if a guard catches us?” Elliot blurted out, his hand freezing on Leon’s warm skin. 

“Most of the guards don’t care. They just look the other way. But hey, I heard Hot Carla lets people fuck in the back of the library when she’s on shelving duty.” Leon finished unbuttoning the top of Elliot’s jumpsuit and pulled it down impatiently.

Elliot’s mind froze up for a moment, stumbling over the idea of them actually fucking. He hadn’t even had the conscious thought of kissing Leon until today. He had known for a long time, though, that Leon was different, like Angela was, like Darlene was, like Shayla had turned out to be. He didn’t get scared and uncomfortable talking to him. He didn’t cringe away from his touch. He felt safe with him.

Leon hastily pulled his own T-shirt off, throwing it on the cell floor. He smelled like prison laundry detergent and commissary soap, with a faint undercurrent of clean sweat that Elliot liked. His skin was so warm under Elliot’s hands, so alive, nothing like the hard cots and concrete floors all around them. His warm fingers sneaked up under Elliot’s T-shirt. “Okay?” Leon mumbled as he started to push the shirt up. Elliot nodded, and shivered a little as the cool air hit his skin and his shirt hit the floor beside Leon’s.

Leon’s hands were on his bare hips now, stroking his hipbones, ticklish and good at the same time. “You ever hooked up with a guy before?” Leon whispered into his neck.

“Yeah,” Elliot whispered back, and Leon stopped kissing his throat, pulled back to look at him. He looked surprised. “It was in college. We just gave each other blowjobs,” Elliot blurted out after a moment of awkward silence, and Leon’s expression went from surprised to curious and pleased. 

“Oh, yeah? Just blowjobs, huh?” he echoed, teasing. He kissed Elliot again, hungrier. “Was it good?”

“It was okay,” Elliot mumbled. It had been pretty perfunctory, honestly. It was just a guy from his dorm, when they were both lonely underclassmen who just wanted someone to touch them. It hadn’t meant much. It hadn’t been anything like this, like being close with someone who actually cared about him. 

“I never did anything with a guy before,” Leon said. He pulled Elliot even closer on his lap. “Must be something about you, cuz.”

“I thought everyone did shit like this in prison,” Elliot joked, smiling up into Leon’s face, and Leon snorted. 

“Not like this, bro. Nothing like this.” Leon smiled back, gentle, and Elliot was startled to hear how Leon’s words echoed his own thoughts from just a few moments before. He shifted himself a little and realized that he could feel the hard line of Leon’s erection under him. Leon sighed happily when he moved. Elliot was beginning to build up a real knowledge base of Leon’s contented noises.

Then Leon’s hand was sliding down his bare stomach, under his half-discarded jumpsuit, under his ugly prison briefs, and his mind shorted out again, plunged into blissful nothingness, nothing but Leon’s kisses and Leon’s hand and his own aching, building need as Leon gently stroked him. 

He moved with Leon’s touch, pressing into it, and every thrust of his hips rubbed his ass against Leon’s lap, until Leon was panting, too, gasping into their kisses, muscles of his thighs twitching underneath them. Elliot plunged his fingers into Leon’s hair and held on, probably ruining all of his dubious work from earlier, but Leon moaned, “Don’t stop.”

_You don’t have to say that,_ Elliot thought. _I won’t make you ask._ He let his fingers tug instead of just holding on, and Leon’s fingers faltered and twitched, his hips thrusting up so hard that the rickety cot behind them rattled. 

Leon was good at this, good at touching Elliot just the right way, and Elliot wondered hazily if this might be one of his delusions, or just a dream. But no, his dreams didn’t have good smells like this, didn’t have dirty details like the squeaky bed and the scrapes he was getting on his knees from the hard concrete floor. He hid his face in Leon’s neck when he came, held onto him tight, and Leon said “Shhh” as he tried to muffle his moans.

Leon was being patient, holding him and stroking his back until his breathing slowed down, but Elliot could feel that Leon was still rock-hard underneath him. They could be caught any minute, so Elliot decided he didn’t have any time to waste.

He scrambled off of Leon’s lap, making Leon let out a little startled huff, but that was nothing compared to the noise Leon made when Elliot leaned down and took his cock into his mouth. Leon slapped his hand over his own mouth as Elliot went to work, but Elliot could still hear his groan.

_That’s it, we’re totally getting caught,_ Elliot thought as he sucked. _I’m going to get thrown into solitary for sucking someone’s dick. I guess that would actually be pretty rebellious, wouldn’t it? A nice form of social protest._ Then Leon took hold of his hair, digging his fingers in as best as he could into the short strands, and Elliot moaned involuntarily around his cock, forgetting some of his anxiety.

Fortunately, Leon didn’t last long, and he managed to come almost silently, even though his back arched and made the bed rattle again. Elliot got a coughing fit right after he swallowed, and then they were both laughing, forgetting to be quiet as they hastily wiped themselves off and pulled their clothes back into place.

“We better get back out to rec. I can’t believe we got away with that,” Elliot said. He headed for the cell door, but Leon caught his hand, pulled him back.

“Hey, listen, cuz.” Leon took his face in between his big hands, holding them close together, making Elliot look in his eyes for a minute. “You’re the best thing that happened to me since I been in here, you got it?” he whispered. “It’s you and me, Elliot.”

Elliot felt himself smiling. “Yeah. You and me.” Leon started to walk out, but Elliot stopped him this time. He had a confession to make.

“Listen, Leon,” Elliot spat out in a rush. “I think I totally fucked up your hair.”

Leon laughed and slapped his shoulder, then ruffled his own crooked, still messy dreadlocks. “Oh, I’m sure you did, bro. I figured you probably would. I’ll pay one of the guys who does hair to fix it.” Elliot stared at him, puzzled, wondering why Leon had even let him try, then, and Leon laughed again. “You think I could say no to you? And hey, it all worked out nice, didn’t it?” Leon had a devious little smile on his face as they walked out to the rec yard, and Elliot was happy to follow him, to keep things the way they were supposed be, _me and you_.


End file.
